Thesaurus view

This page explains how to use the thesaurus view of the Egyptian Arabic Dictionary.
The thesaurus view gives you a list words with similar or related meanings:for example,
the Food section contains a category called Fruits, which contains a list of names of fruits,
together with words like skin and stone.

You can get to the thesaurus from the other views in two ways:

Click on the Thesaurus link in the Online Options menu

Click on the thesaurus category for a word

Form

At the top left of the page is an area to specify what word you are looking for.

First, select the Direction, for example English to Egyptian,
then select the thesaurus section. Finally, select the
thesaurus category.

Results

The following picture shows the results. The page lists up to twenty words
that are similar to the letters that you typed in. Each word is followed by
one or more words in the other language.

Initially, only a summary of the details for a word is displayed.
Click on the button to expand the details,
showing the main forms for the word. Click on the
button to collapse it again.

Point at an item on the image to see brief notes about it. Click on it
for full information about its meaning.

Thesaurus category

Words in the dictionary are divided into a number of categories. Words with similar meanings
are placed in the same category. Click on the category to see all words in the same category.

Language

The displayed code indicates the language of the word. Point the mouse at the
code to see the language name in full.

Word

Arabic words are shown in both arabic writing and either transliterated
or pronounced form: you can use the button at the top to select whichever you prefer.
When you select pronounced, the stressed syllable in each word is underlined.

You can click on the word to see full details of it, including a list of words
with similar meanings.

Grammatical element

The displayed code indicates the type of word, for example noun or verb. Point
the mouse at the code to see the element name in full.

Usage

The usage is a star indicating how frequently the word is used: the options are

- daily

- regularly

- occasionally

- understood but rarely used

- not always understood

no star - unrated

Examples

If the word appears in any examples, the
button is displayed. You can click on it to see the example sentences that use this word.

Verb

If the word is a verb and there are sufficient details in the database,
the button is displayed. You can click on
it to see a full list of all the tenses and cases that are valid for this verb.

Notes

Some words have more than one meaning, for example sheet could be a piece of paper
or something that goes on the bed. The notes explains which meaning this word has.

Play

Click on the button to hear somebody saying the word.

Form

Some words exist in more than one form, for example singular and plural. For most words,
there is a list of the forms necessary to derive all other forms. Next to the word, there is
a code that indicates the type of form, for example perfect or imperfect. Point
the mouse at the code to see the element name in full.

Sidebar

The sidebar is displayed on the left of the screen on computers and below the
search results on phones.

Show transliterated / Show pronounced

Arabic words are displayed both in arabic writing and in european letters. There
are two options for displaying words in european letters- transliterated and pronounced. You can click on this to switch between the two.

For more information about the differences between the two systemd and an introduction to
arabic writing, see Arabic Writing.

Online options

This section contains links to other learning aids that are available online.

This includes other ways of finding words, for example the thesaurus lists
similar meanings, and the dictionary provides an alphabetical list of words
like a normal dictionary.

Help

This section contains links to the instructions for this page, a summary of
abbreviations used on the web site and information about the transliteration
system (writing arabic in european letters), an information about egyptian
arabic pronunciation rules.

Other

This section contains links to other facilities available through the web site.

Dictionary

The egyptian Arabic Dictionary is available in various other formats, for
example apps for Android and iPhone, PDF files, e-books et cetera.

This section contains links to information about these dictionary formats.